A gearshift console related to the present invention is known from EP 0 052 794. As is apparent from FIG. 3 of this document, four gears of the basic transmission are shifted with manual shift lever 20 from the gearbox manually and mechanically according to an H pattern. Furthermore, two drive gear groups and one reverse gear group are shifted via a second gearshift lever 40. Such devices, or, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, with a gear splitting that can be shifted up or down under load, have proved to be successful in farm tractors. However, the mechanical two-lever shifting requires additional space in the driver's cab, and it generally does not any longer meet the requirements imposed on modern farm tractors.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to further develop a gearshift console which requires less space, is easier to operate, and with which shifting of the transmission groups is possible only in the neutral position of the manual gearshift lever for the basic transmission.